


Here's To Someday

by JacklynnHyde



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-25 11:25:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2620028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JacklynnHyde/pseuds/JacklynnHyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Darcy Lewis had never been one to be easily shaken.  When a Norse God fell out of the sky in front of the car her, Jane and Erik were in, her first response had been to make a wise crack.  And when Greenwich became the centre of an extra-terrestrial clusterfuck, she’d simple winked at Jane before skipping off with the equipment.  Darcy was an independent and quick-thinking young woman who was in complete control of herself at all times…except now, when she was pressed against a wall by a man with his gloved hand over her mouth."</p><p>A different take on identifying and finding your soulmates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Here's To Someday

**Author's Note:**

> Just an idea that I had about how the process of identifying soulmates might be something actually in the body. Plus I felt that the Darcy/Bucky tag needed more love. Please note that this work is unbeta'd and I haven't done any creative writing in a while, especially fanfiction.

Darcy Lewis had never been one to be easily shaken.  When a Norse God fell out of the sky in front of the car her, Jane and Erik were in, her first response had been to make a wise crack.  And when Greenwich became the centre of an extra-terrestrial clusterfuck, she’d simple winked at Jane before skipping off with the equipment.  Darcy was an independent and quick-thinking young woman who was in complete control of herself at all times…except now, when she was pressed against a wall by a man with his gloved hand over her mouth.

\--/--/--

The history of soulmates changed from culture to culture, with its origins varying from Zeus splitting man in two to God deigning that each man and woman shall have a partner in life.  However it came about, soulmates were universally recognised and, although laws changed from country to country, human rights activists had succeeded in ensuring that every human had the right to seek their soulmate…And with good reason.

There were many myths surrounding soulmates and how they identify themselves to each other.  Claims of words or names appearing on children’s skin were explained in the 1920’s, when it was discovered that these aptly named ‘ _skin signs’_ were in fact caused by two non-soulmates having offspring.  The words appearance was a sign that one of the parent’s true soulmates had a child and acted as a way to ensure some sort of connection between them.  It was also noted that, in some cases, the ‘ _skin signs’_ appeared on the closest relative, rather than a direct descendant in the case of one soulmate not having children.

Soon after the First World War, a sure fire method of identifying one’s soulmate was developed due to the discovery of a large mineral deposit in Eastern Europe.  This mineral was called Animusite from the Latin ‘animus’, meaning soul.  Animusite’s properties meant that, when touched by human skin, it formed a molecular chain in a pattern unique to the individual and their soulmate.  They also found that, by combining it shortly after contact with a metal – such as gold – it transferred a print of the chain into it as a design, allowing for it to be worn as a sort of medallion or pendant.  The Animusite could then be removed and reused for another person.

Expensive as the process was, it became commonplace in the mid-1930’s in countries such as the USA for men and women to have a print taken of their ‘ _soul chain’_ and transferred into a piece of jewellery which was worn like a badge of honour on the streets – a sign that somebody was looking for you and loved you for who you were.  Official looking buildings advertised Animusite, beckoning the desperate and the depressed in to tell them that someone loved them as they relieved them of some of the weight in their wallets.

\--/--/--

Bucky Barnes had been saving since he was seven, carefully putting away any extra money – if there was any – in the box his metal ruler for school came in.  By the time he was 20, he’d finally saved just enough for the steel dog tag he’d seen in the corner of the lavish cases since his mother had dragged him and his sister there, cooing about how beautiful some of the more intricate designs were.  He never really saw the point of looking at them; they couldn’t afford it anyway.  But after 13 years, Bucky Barnes had done it.  He’d succeeded in doing what he’d been trying to do since he was seven years old; saving enough to prove to Steve that there was someone out there for him. 

So, on Steve’s 19th Birthday, Bucky dragged him to the shop on the West side of Brooklyn; smiling when Steve’s eyes widened as he worked out what was going on.

“Buck, tell me we’re not…” Steve hesitated, indicating at the shop door.

“ _We’re_ not,” Bucky agreed.  Steve relaxed but Bucky grinned.  “But _you_ are.”

Steve’s head snapped up so fast that Bucky expected bruises where his spine pinched his skin.  God knows the kid was skinny enough.  Without another word, but grin still firmly in place, Bucky pulled open the door and pushed the blonde inside.  An older woman at the desk looked up when they entered and put on the practised smile professional sale women wore, although her smile became a little more real when she saw Bucky.

“What can I do for you boys?”  Bucky lead Steve to the counter, forcing him down into the small chair in front of the woman.  He put on his best smile and turned his full attention to the woman.

“Well ma’am, it’s this punk’s birthday and I was hopin’ we could get him a soul chain.”  The woman glanced down at Steve before returning her eyes to Bucky, giving him a quick sweep to establish that he wasn’t wearing a soul chain.

“What about you, mister?”  Bucky shook his head, looking down and feigning a bashful smile.

“Can’t afford it.  Besides,” he looked back up at her, “pretty girls prefer a mystery.”

He winked and she smiled.  “I’m sure we can figure something out.”

The woman pulled on a pair of gloves and reached under the counter, pulling out a small vial of fine, black powder with a faded label on its side.  It reminded Bucky of charcoal dust.  She emptied a small amount into a rounded, glass dish before putting the stopper back on the vial.  She pushed the dish towards Steve.  “When you’re ready, I need you to press your thumb to the centre of the powder, hold for a few seconds, and then pull back.”

Steve swallowed, looking up at Bucky, before he nodded, raising his right hand from his lap.  He hesitated for a moment before doing as she’d asked, pressing his thumb into the powder before slowly pulling away.  He gawked when he saw the design the Animusite had made, like the roots of a tree with a star in their centre.  Bucky slapped him on the back – not hard enough to make him cough but not so soft that he felt like he was being babied – and grinned down at his friend.

The woman behind the counter smiled at Steve, before indicating that he should chose a tag.  Steve, of course, indicated to the cheapest one – like the circular metal on a dog’s collar – and Bucky shook his head, turning back to the woman.  “He’ll get the dog tag.”

“Don’t be a jerk,” Steve said quickly.  “I don’t like you spending that much on me.”

“Well tough luck, punk, ‘cause it’s happenin’ whether you like it or not.”  Bucky went to turn back to the saleswoman but Steve stood up, making him slightly taller than he was previous, and demanded Bucky’s attention.

“You don’t get to decide that.  Maybe I like the other one better?”

“Or maybe you don’t wanna spend the money I’ve been saving for this.”

“Maybe I want you to be able to afford one as well?”

“Well I can’t, and of the two of us-!”

“Boys.”  The men fell silent, turning back to the woman behind the counter.  They had the decency to be somewhat bashful and she smiled sweetly at them both.  “Are you aware that the dog tags are a set?”

Steve was the first to speak.  “Excuse me?”

“A set.  The dog tags come in twos, designed for you to engrave your soulmate’s name on the second when you meet them.”  She smiled wider, leaning under the desk to pull out the Animusite again, along with a second glass dish.  “Now, I’m not supposed to do this, but since you’re both so fired up, I’ll let you have one of the tags each for the same price.”

Steve grinned and turned to Bucky, nudging him into the chair he’d previously occupied.  Bucky sighed before sitting down and the woman pushed the second dish of black powder towards him.  “Do the same thing your friend did.”

Bucky put his right thumb to the centre of the dish and pulled away to see what appeared to be a snowflake with a small, four-point star in its centre.  He smiled as the woman pulled both dishes away, his and Steve’s, and disappeared into a back room.  She emerged a few minute later with two dog tags on two separate chains and handed them over to them.  Both grinned as they put them on, handing over the money and leaving the shop.  Steve’s hand fisted around the tag at his neck and Bucky placed an arm over his shoulder.

“Happy Birthday, punk.”

\--/--/--

1946, November 12th 

Personal Effects of CAPTAIN ROGERS, Steven Grant

“CAPTAIN AMERICA”

 **STATUS:** M.I.A. - Assumed dead (Body not found)

No identified soulmate.  No surviving relatives.  Personal effects moved into storage until further arrangements made.  Full inventory to come.  No items of significant value found.  No soul chain found (although records state ROGERS had one).  Assumed lost with body.

\--/--/--

1946, November 13th 

Personal Effects of SERGEANT BARNES, James “Bucky” Buchanan

 **STATUS:** M.I.A. - Assumed dead (Body not found)

No identified soulmate.  Sister, Rebecca BARNES, only surviving relative.  Personal effects moved into storage until further arrangements made.  Full inventory to come.  No items of significant value found.  BARNES’ soul chain found among effects of CAPTAIN ROGERS.  Assumed removed prior to fall.

\--/--/--

The 1960’s were known as the age of the radicals, with feminist and soul-activists becoming more prominent and expressive about their opinions.  By the early 1970’s, all hospitals in the USA were required to make a soul chain for newborns.  This meant that Darcy Lewis had never known a time where she didn’t have hers around her neck.  The circular, gold pendant, about the size of a quarter, hung on a long chain between her breasts at all times, carefully hidden from view.  She barely even registered its presence any more.

When she’d first started working for Jane Foster, the first thing she noticed was that she didn’t wear a soul chain.  While most would have found this incredibly odd, Darcy had simply shrugged it off, adding it to the quickly growing list of Jane’s strange quirks.  It wasn’t until nearly two months later, and only after a cheap bottle of tequila, that Jane talked about it.

“Animusite doesn’t react when I touch it,” Jane slurred, leaning heavily against Darcy’s side as they sat in the New Mexico desert. “Figured I don’t have a soulmate.”

Darcy found that hard to believe but, before she could press it any further, a soft snore came from Jane and the brunette rolled her eyes.  “Lightweight.”

When, four months after that, Thor fell out of the sky and suddenly Animusite reacted to Jane like Thor reacted to coffee, Darcy resisted the urge to say _I told you so_.  Instead she grinned as she watched Jane play with the round charm on her bracelet; the design of a double helix made of lightning on its surface.  Darcy touched a hand to her own pendant, imagining she could feel the cold from the snowflake detailed in it.

\--/--/--

When Steve woke up from the ice, he found himself in an age he didn’t recognise.  The brightness of the colours overwhelmed his senses and the changes in technology both amazed and terrified him.  He also found that he was completely alone.  The memory of Peggy’s fingers, tracing the pattern of his chain as his eyes locked with the identical one she wore as a charm on her bracelet, too painful to confront daily; so he didn’t.  He buried his fear and his grief in the familiar, in battle.  He fought and he trained constantly because when he stopped the weight of it all would nearly kill him.

Steve knew Peggy had never had children although she did marry; during the war so many lost their soulmates that it wasn’t uncommon for these people to take comfort with each other.  He was glad she had moved on, had lived her life.  He just wished he’d had the chance to live it with her.  When she finally died, at the age of 95, shortly after he’d seen her, he woke up to the feeling of burning around his right wrist.  Looking at it, he found wrapped around it, in elegant cursive, eight words.  Too emotionally exhausted to process their meaning, he rubbed at the words before forcing himself back to sleep.

After SHIELD fell – and HYDRA with it for the most part – Tony Stark had contacted him; or at least, Pepper Potts had.  She’d offered him a home in Stark Tower and, with no better alternatives, he’d agreed.  On his arrival, he was greeted by Agent Carter with a firm handshake.

“Looks like this is where we start again,” Sharon had said with a smile, indicating to the building behind them, and Steve glanced down at his wrist.  He let out a small laugh before speaking.

“In that case, how about that coffee?”  Sharon’s hand stiffened in his and, following his gaze, read the words on his wrist.  A few long seconds passed before Sharon smiled and shook her head.

“Aunt Peggy warned me this might happen.”  She looked Steve up and down before breaking into a smile.  “Could be worse I suppose.”

Steve laughed, taking her in with a more focused eye now.  He grinned back at her.  “It definitely could.”

\--/--/--

MISSION: Kill Captain America…

MISSION: Kill Steve Rogers…

MISSION: Steve Rogers…

 _Steve_.  The name beat in his head like a hammer.  He didn’t even know his own name.  Asset.  Soldier.

 _Bucky._  The name felt familiar, like Steve’s, but at the same time unusual.  His handlers were dead, if not by his hands than by SHIELD’s.  He felt nothing.  He hadn’t felt anything in so long, so used to having remorse and guilt beaten out of or wiped from him, that any emotion felt strange, almost alien.  He stared at his own face on the museum wall and his jaw clenched.

He was angry.  HYDRA had taken something from him, something he could have had, something he couldn’t even _remember_ , and he wanted it.  He wanted to rip them apart from the inside, tear the machine that took Steve from him to pieces and destroy any trace of HYDRA from the world.  He wanted it to be over, he wanted–

A shine of silver caught his eye from the glass cases beside him.  A memory came with it, faded and decayed, of a shop.  He remembered being there, with Steve.  He remembered joy.  He remembered…a snowflake.  Looking down, he saw a dog tag with a small label printed beside it:

 _The Soul Chain of Sergeant James “Bucky” Barnes_.

_Soulmate: Unknown_

The following morning, Captain Rogers received a phone call stating that Bucky’s soul chain had been stolen from the museum.  Instead of the expected anger, the curator received a sincere thank-you before the line went dead.  Steve smiled to himself.  Bucky was remembering.

\--/--/--

After her internship finished – or at least she got the credit she needed for her degree – Darcy found she didn’t want to leave Jane and, conveniently, she didn’t have to.  After everything that went down in New Mexico, New York and Greenwich – friggin’ aliens, man – she and Jane were both offered positions with Stark Industries.  Within a month they were both settled in and Darcy was making a name for herself as a scientist wrangler.

Pepper, after watching with amusement and astonishment as Darcy force fed Jane pop tarts after Day 2 of “ _I can’t sleep!  I’m on the verge of a scientific breakthrough!”,_ had immediately employed her to keep Tony in check as well.  The intern-turned-assistant seemed uncertain but, on seeing her proposed salary and benefits, had accepted with a grin.

Which is exactly why she planned on kicking Tony’s shiny metal ass if she made it out of this one alive.  He was the reason she was out here in a back alley on her way back from picking up the custom parts he’d ordered.  She’d asked why he couldn’t make them himself but he mumbled something about ‘short supply’ and ‘rare material’ before forcing her out the door.  Although she hoped her life was worth more than those parts because they were currently littering the ground surrounding the boot of her assailant.

She wanted to scream, to do something to alert anyone around her that something was going on but the hand over her mouth was firm and unyielding.  She tried to bite him, but instead her teeth ached from pressing into what felt like metal and she mumbled curses against his hand.  She heard a low chuckle before she was pulled into a doorway.

“You’re being followed, кукла.”  The voice speaking was low and rough from disuse.  In the changed light of the doorway, she could make out some of his features.  His hair was long, nearly to his shoulders, and he had a decent amount of stubble on his cheeks.  His eyes were a grey blue, like the clouds of a lightning storm.  They looked old, too old for a man who looked to be barely 30.  “By HYDRA.”

Darcy swallowed, willing herself to talk.  “Why?”

The man looked down at her with a smirk, indicating to pieces that once were Stark’s custom parts.  Darcy let out a sigh as her ‘hero’ looked around the alley, carefully scouting out the area.  Then he spoke again, “looks like you’re safe now.”

“Except for the fact that I’m in a dark alleyway with a man who pushed me against a wall and broke what I don’t know but I assume was an expensive piece of high-tech, high-profile and _highly expensive_ equipment.”  The adrenaline was starting to wear off and now she was just annoyed as she pushed the man away.  Walking over, she looked down at the broken tech and sighed.  She crouched down and began to pick them up, putting them into her bag.

“Sorry for doing a good deed,” said the man, grin in his words and she looked up from the ground to find him crouched beside her.  She rolled her eyes at him and went back to collecting the equipment.

“Right, it’s a good deed when you push a girl against a wall as protection from someone following her.”  She looked up again.  “A follower I didn’t see by the way.”

“You _were_ being followed.”  Blue eyes met hers as she looked up.  “I saw him tailing you since you left Stark Tower.”

“Why the hell were you at Stark Tower!?”  Darcy stood quickly and the man followed suit.  “Jesus, are you a stalker?  Or a competitor?  Because I swear to God, if Hill hadn't confiscated my taser you’d be drooling in a twitching heap of man right now.”

“A…friend lives in Stark Tower.  I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”  His voice was so sad and his head hung to look at the ground, reminding her of a kid being scolded.  Darcy immediately hated herself for getting angry.  She may not be a saint, but she wasn’t heartless. 

“Uh…thanks, for your…help.”  He slowly began to look back up but his eyes caught on her chest.  She was about to chastise him when she realised it wasn’t ‘the girls’ he was looking at.  It seemed when she’d bent down to collect Stark’s tech, her pendant had fallen out of her clothes and was now hanging over her breasts.  She looked down at it before looking back up at him.  His eyes were intense and incredibly focused on the design.  She lifted her hand to put the pendant back under her clothes but he grabbed her wrist.

“Hey!”  He didn’t seem to hear her, instead his other hand reached to his neck to tug on the chord of a dog tag.  Her eyes widened when she saw the design on it.  Slowly, she looked up to meet his eye.  “You…you’re my soulmate?”

He nodded slowly.  Darcy swallowed and did the only thing she could think of; introduce herself.  “I’m Darcy Lewis.”

“James Buchanan Barnes.”  She could be forgiven for her processing being a little slow in that moment but a good three seconds after he said the name, she exclaimed.

“Steve!  You were looking for Steve!”  His brow furrowed in confusion.  “In the Tower, Stark Tower.  Steve Rogers?  Your BFF from Days of Old?  Wait…aren’t you supposed to be dead or…um…?”

She trailed off, looking down at the space between them.  James – Bucky – followed her gazed and looked down at his arm, the metal one, still clutching her wrist.  He immediately recoiled, muttering apologies and curses in Russian and English.  Darcy immediately grabbed his wrist, shaking her head.

“No, no, no, that’s not what I… I’m really bad at this.”  Darcy sighed, stepping back so she could meet Bucky’s eye without straining her neck.  “Steve’s told me about you.  Told me about…what happened to you.  And...it’s horrible.”

Bucky nodded, looking down at the ground.  She was right.  It was horrible.  He was horrible.  He was a killer and she-

“It’s horrible what they did to you; what they made you do.  I hate that you had to live through that.  But I don’t care.”  He looked up at that and she smiled.  “I don’t care who you were.  You’re here and you’re alive and you can make your own choices.”

She fidgeted with the strap on her bag before sighing.  “So here’s a choice.  You can come with me to the tower where Steve and his new soulmate and most of the Avengers are or you can stay away until you’re ready, if you ever are.”

She bit her lip before adding, “but I’ll be in the tower.  You decide.”

There was a long moment where the two just stared at each other.  After a good ten seconds, Darcy gave a sad smile and turned to walk away.  She had just lifted her foot to take a step when she felt Bucky’s flesh and blood hand grab hers.  She grinned and turned to look at him beside her, smiling down at her.

“How could I say no when a beautiful dame is offering to take me home?”  Darcy rolled her eyes.

“With some tact and charm but, alas, you lack both.”  Bucky’s smile grew wider and they started the walk to find a cab, falling into easy banter.

“I’ve got plenty of charm.  Back in the day I was apparently quite popular with the ladies.”

“The key there being ‘ _back in the day_ ’.  Now you corner girls in alleys, so for all I know your _charm_ involves me waking up in South Texas with one kidney and no internet.”

“I’d never be so cruel,” Bucky said in mock offence as he raised his arm to hail a cab.  “You’d have access to dial-up.”

“You're a sick, sadistic man Bucky Barnes.”

“Eh, but you'll love me.”  They both stilled.  The cab pulled up in front of them but neither of them moved.  Bucky swallowed, terrified that he’d just ruined everything.  He turned to Darcy and, on seeing his face, she squeezed his hand.

“Not yet, but I could see myself loving you…someday.”  She climbed into the cab and Bucky stood beside it, processing for a moment.  After a long pause he slid into the cab beside her.

“Then here’s to someday.”


	2. I Know Who You Are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I was not expecting the response I got for this and I figured since I had some time I'd write a follow up. There's no guarantee that there will be anything more - thus I'm posting it as complete - but if the mood strikes some more stuff may be added.
> 
> Thank-you to Fox Scriber for correcting my Russian.

She was crazy.  That was the only thing Darcy could think as she walked up to Stark Tower, rummaging through her bag for her keycard whilst trying not to further damage any of Tony’s equipment.  I mean, she was seriously thinking of letting a HYDRA trained, 90 plus year old, hobo-looking assassin into the most important building for the security of the western world.  Who in their right mind would do that!?

Finally pulling her keycard free from the organised chaos she called her messenger bag, she turned around, looking to the curb where Bucky Barnes – her soulmate! – stood, with his hands thrust deep into the pockets of his hoodie.  The doubt disappeared when he smiled at her, coyly but with a sort of rusty confident, as the sun caught the dog tag he’d pointedly refused to tuck back into his shirt.  Darcy grinned and waved him over as she turned back to the building, swiping her card and pulling the door open.  Turning back to Bucky, she found he hadn’t moved and the smile he’d given her was gone, replaced by a scowl at the concrete beneath his boots.

She let the door swing closed as she walked back to him, pulling the strap of her bag higher up on her shoulder.  Deliberately, she made her footfall a little heavier than normal so he’d hear her.  “Bucky?”

He didn’t look up, he didn’t even acknowledge that he’d heard her and Darcy bit her lip.  She craned her neck a little so she could see his face under his hair.  “James?”

His eyes snapped to hers at that and she smiled slightly at him.  His eyes seemed to track every muscle in her face, analysing her and she tried not to let that look bother her to much.

“James, you don’t have to come in.  I have to, because I have to give Tony these parts but you don’t have to.”  She laid a hand on his left shoulder.  “You can chose, Bucky.  You don’t have to.”

Bucky, his eyes still fixed on the concrete, blew out a little laugh at that and Darcy saw his lips twitch in a small smile before falling back into sombreness.  They just stood there for a moment and Darcy could imagine the dusty cogs turning in Bucky’s head as he tried to remember how to make a decision for himself.  Her thumb rubbed small circle on his shoulder, feeling the plates of metal shift beneath her touch.  It was almost a minute before either of them spoke.

“I want to come with you.”  Bucky’s voice seemed small and his eyes never moved from the ground.  She had a feeling that he resented this powerlessness, hated how weak he felt in that moment, so Darcy didn’t dwell on it; instead she tried to push him back into the banter they’d had before.

“Slow down there, Mr Roboto.  I was only asking you to accompany me inside.  No-one’s coming until the third date at least.”  Bucky’s head shot up and she grinned, spinning her keycard between her fingers.  His eyes scanned her face before he raised an eyebrow.

“A girl in my day’d cause a scandal taking like that.”  Darcy shrugged nonchalantly.

“A girl in you day would cause a scandal by showing her ankle to a chimneysweep.”  She turned her back on him and walked back to the door, this time aware that Bucky was behind her. “Things have changed, my man.”

“I’m in my 90’s, not from the 1890’s,” Bucky pointed out, watching as Darcy swiped her card again and pulled the door open.  He followed her inside, noting the distinct temperature drop as he did so.  “Lots of dames played fast and loose, they just didn’t announce it in the street.”

Darcy snorted a laugh, swiping her card again by the elevator before turning to him.  “ _Dames played fast and loose_?  We’re gonna have to work on getting you some up to date terminology because I don’t think anyone has said _fast and loose_ to me since my grandfather asked me about my life at Culver.”

The elevator door opened and they both stepped inside, doors closing behind them.  Darcy’s fingers hovering over the button for the 40th floor before she stopped herself.  Bucky looked at her in confusion and she swallowed.  “Uh, I need to…um…go to the labs but…I thought you probably…uh…won’t want to…um…”

She trailed off, biting her lip and fiddling with her bag strap.  Bucky’s eyes darkened and Darcy immediately backtracked.  “But I also need to go to the common room to grab some coffee and poptarts for the super scientists.  How about we go there!”

Before he could say anything, Darcy pressed the button for the 45th floor and the elevator started to move.

\--/--/--

Steve usually avoided the common room.  Not because he didn’t like spending time with the rest of the team – in fact he’d made a decent amount of money the last time they’d all played poker much to Tony’s chagrin – but simply because he like having his own space more.  However, since his own fridge was severely lacking in anything edible, he found himself in the communal kitchen, attempting to make a sandwich to take back to his floor.  He was pulling the bread out of the bag when he heard the familiar ding from the elevator.

A few seconds later he heard a surprised yelp from behind him and Steve turned to find Tony and Jane’s assistant standing behind him, looking surprisingly flustered.  He nodded in acknowledgement of her.  “Miss Lewis.”

“Uh…Hi, Captain Rogers.  What are you doing here?  I mean, you’re allowed to be here because it’s the communal floor and you’re a commune...I mean an Avenger!  So of course you can be here but you’re usually not so that’s why I was asking but…I’m going to shut up now.”  The young woman laughed nervously at herself and cleared her throat.  “I’m just here getting coffee and poptarts so the scientists don’t die and then I’ll be out of your way.”

She darted around him, grabbing two blue boxes off the shelf above her before crouching down to get a bag of coffee out of the cupboards under the bench.  Steve, somewhat confused by her flurry of movement, slowly made to back out of the kitchen.  “I’ll just wait out here until you’re done.”

Her startled, “No!” surprised him, but not enough to stop him turning around and entering the common room.  Steve walked about three steps before he froze, the clatter of boxes from the kitchen behind him barely registering as he tried to take in what he was seeing.

Standing stiff as a board in front of him was the Winter Soldier – no, this wasn’t the Winter Soldier.  There was something different in his eyes.  Something familiar that hadn’t been there on the helicarrier.  “Bucky?

No response.  He heard Darcy coming out of the kitchen and immediately went to stop her.  This might not be Bucky.  He might be dangerous.  He might hurt her.  Before he’d taken a full step towards her, Bucky had moved between them, his eyes the colour of steel.  “Не трогай ее.”

Steve watched as Darcy placed a hand on his shoulder and Bucky turned to look at her for a moment.  Some of the stiffness fell from his body and when Bucky turned back his eyes were the blue Steve remembered.  Like storm clouds.  “Bucky?”

“I know you.”  Steve allowed himself a small intake of breath in surprise.  “I remember…some of you.”  Bucky looked the taller man up and down and his brow furrowed.  “You were smaller.”

Steve let out a small laugh, his head lowering, and he heard Darcy chuckle behind his friend.  “I was.  I was sick a lot.  You took care of me.”

“You were a punk.”  Steve’s head shot back up at that.  Bucky looked somewhat confused, like he didn’t fully understand what he’d just said.  Steve cracked a half smile.

“Well, you were a jerk.”  A switch seemed to flip behind Bucky’s eyes and then he was the man Steve remembered; cocky and self-confident with a smile that could convince any dame that he was worth their time.  He didn’t think he’d ever seen Bucky with the same girl twice.  He’d always wondered about the kind of girl his soulmate must be to get him to stick around.

Steve’s eyes fell to the chain around his best friend’s neck.  He knew Bucky must have been the one who stole it – who else would care enough to take it except maybe his soulmate.  He motioned to it before saying, “I see you got that back.”

Bucky looked down at his chest, his eye catching on the metal as if he’d forgotten it was there.  Then he let out a small laugh.  “Yeah, I did.  Speaking of which,” he pressed a hand to Darcy’s lower back, bringing her out from behind him, “This is Darcy Lewis.”

It took a moment for Steve to process the connection, but when he did his eyebrows rose in surprise and he looked from Bucky to Darcy and back again.  “She’s your soulmate?”

Bucky smiled.  “Yeah.  Ran into her in a back alley.”

“Uh, I think you’ll find you ambushed me in a back alley,” Darcy corrected, elbowing the brunet in the ribs.  He raised an eyebrow at her but offered no explanation as he continued.

“And she managed to convince me that coming here, coming to find you, was a good idea.”  Bucky looked down at Darcy and Steve could see the affection in his eyes.  The blond shook his head slightly as a grin spread across his face.

“You never could turn down a pretty girl.”  Darcy blushed and Bucky let out a laugh, one that Steve hadn’t realised he’d been aching to hear since he woke up from the ice.

\--/--/--

It was two hours after she’d left, and an hour since she was meant to be back, that Darcy found herself back in the labs with her arms full of poptarts and coffee.  Her bag, having fallen off her shoulder, was now dangling from her elbow and, so that she had a hand free to type in the security code, she was holding one of the bags of coffee between her teeth.  When she walked in, the sound of welding stopped and Tony lifted his visor to look at her.

“Truly you are the picture of sophistication.”

“Shove it, Stark,” Darcy retorted once she’d dumped her haul in the small kitchen they had in the labs, the sound of welding starting up again behind her.  Leaving them on the bench, she walked over to where Tony was working.  “I got those oh-so-special parts you wanted.”

Picking them one by one out of her bag and laying them on his workstation, Darcy watched out of the corner of her eye as Tony again lifted his visor and examined the pieces.  He picked up one of them, which to her looked like a glorified spark plug but she was sure was far more important, and started turning it over in his hand, holding it at different distances as he squinted at it.  Darcy smirked.

“Need some glasses, old man?”

“It’s cracked.  Why is it cracked?” he asked, turning to her.  She opened her mouth to answer when he put both hands on her shoulder and moved her half a step to the left as he glanced over her shoulder.  She turned her head to see the clock on the opposite wall.  “Why did a pick up 20 minutes away take you two hours?”

Darcy rolled her eyes and moved Tony’s hands off her shoulders.  “I dropped them.”

Tony’s eyebrows seemed to hit his hairline.  “You what?”

“I dropped them.  Or, more specifically, I was ambushed in a back alley and they fell out of my hands.”

“Are you alright?”  Darcy smiled a little at that.  Despite the media’s desperation to paint Tony Stark as a womanising narcissist, he did genuinely care about the people around him.  The fact that this elite group included her was an unexpected bonus.

“I’m fine.  Sorry about your parts.”  Tony waved his hand dismissively.

“What do you mean by _ambushed_ then?”

“I…uh…” Darcy stammered, not being used to this sort of attention from Tony.  “A HYDRA guy was following me and I didn’t notice so…uh…another guy who did pulled me into an alleyway so the guy stopped tailing me.”

“Another guy who just happened to be there and notice?”  She could see that Tony wasn’t buying it but, not knowing what else to say, Darcy stayed silent.  Tony made a motion with his hands.  “Who?”

“What?”

“Who was the other guy?”

“Uh…Bucky Barnes?”  Tony seemed to take a moment to process that information and Darcy bit her lip as he scanned her face.  As soon as he’d decided she was nervous, not lying, he directed his attention to the ceiling.

“JARVIS, tell the Cap.”

“He already knows, sir.  Captain Rogers is speaking with Sergeant Barnes in the common room at the moment.”  The clipped mechanical tone of Stark’s AI responded.  A holographic screen appeared and Tony spun to see it, his eyes fixing on the two men shown on the security feed.  Then he turned to Darcy.

“Why did you let him into the tower?”

“He wanted to see Steve.”  She meant to say it with surety but it came out sounding like a question.  Tony raised an eyebrow and Darcy sighed, pulling her soul chain out of her shirt.  “And he’s my soulmate.”

Tony looked between her chain and her face, then to the screen, before letting out a laugh.  “Wouldn’t have picked that.”

Darcy rolled her eyes, tucking her pendant back into her shirt, before crossing her arms over her chest.  “Do you actually need me for anything right now, _Mr Stark_?”

She said his name with faux sweetness dripping from it and Tony laughed again, winking at her before turning to the parts still scattered on his workbench.  “No, Ms. Lewis.  I’ll get to work on these.”

“Can you fix them?”

Tony made a _pfft_ sound and rolled his eyes.  “Can I fix them.  JARVIS, cue the music.”

As Guns ‘n’ Roses began playing at ear-bleeding volume, Darcy grabbed one of the poptart boxes and headed over to Jane’s part of the lab, thanking whichever Gods there were for soundproofing.  Typing in her code and closing the door behind her, she took a second to enjoy the silence before heading over to her friend.

“Yo, Jane.  I’ve got your sugar fix,” Darcy said, shaking the box at the scientist.  When Jane didn’t even look up from her notebook, Darcy put the box down beside her, figuring that sooner or later Jane would look up and notice it.  Until then, Darcy was content to sit at her desk, fiddling with her soul chain, her fingertips running over the snowflake again and again.

\--/--/--

Natasha Romanoff was never caught off guard; no matter how many times Clint claims to have gotten the drop on her.  If anything, the fact that he’s still alive proves that fact.  Despite knowing that she is in a secure building with people she trusts about as much as she’ll ever trust anyone, her training never really turns off, keeping her on constant high alert.  Which is why Natasha has a gun aimed at Bucky’s head before he or Steve are fully aware she’s in the common room with them.

“ Ни с места, иначе убью.”  Bucky went rigid and his head turned, slowly, to look at her.  Steve immediately turned to her, his body slipping into a more authoritative and soldier-like position.

“Agent Romanoff, stand down.  He’s safe.”  She ignored him, her eyes never leaving Bucky’s as she spoke to the air.

“JARVIS, lock down the common room, no-one in or out.”

“Yes, Agent.”  The slight hiss that came with the doors and windows being locked down was ignored by the room’s occupants who, instead, were intensely focused on the standoff between them.  Steve took a step towards Natasha who didn’t even seem to react, despite him knowing she was acutely aware of him.

“Natasha, stand down.”  No-one moved.

“Поправь хотя бы позу, Наталья.”  Steve didn’t have to look at Bucky to know the slight smirk on his face.  Natasha’s eyes hardened into a glare but her left foot slid half an inch further out and her arm stiffened, holding her gun a little firmer in her grip.  “так-то лучше.”

“Captain Rogers, please explain why _he_ is _here_.”  Natasha’s voice was firm and unwavering with her eyes never leaving Bucky for an instant.  Bucky was smiling at her, which only made Natasha even more determined to put a bullet between his eyes.

“You could just ask me,” Bucky interrupted and the spy moved the gun a little closer to his head.

“If you value your life, I’d advise you to stay silent.”  Bucky’s smile grew into what was undoubtedly a grin and his shoulders moved in a slight shrug; small enough that it wasn’t a threat but large enough for her to see.  His eye’s moved to Steve who sighed.

“Darcy Lewis.”  Natasha’s eyes flicked to Steve’s for a moment in her confusion before snapping back to Bucky.

“What about her?"

“She’s his soulmate.”  That caught her completely off guard and her gun fell an inch off target, now aimed at Bucky’s throat.  Her eyes drifted from his face, no longer smiling, to the chain around his neck.  She’d seen it in the museum, of course (yes, even super-assassins have days off), but to see it around the neck of the man who’d trained her was somewhat…unsettling.

“Darcy Lewis is the soulmate of the Winter Soldier.”  It was meant to sound like a question, but it came out as more of a statement.  Steve opened his mouth to speak, most likely against her calling him ‘ _the Winter Soldier_ ’, but Natasha cut him off.  “Does she know?”

The two soldiers looked at each other for a moment; an unspoken conversation seemed to pass between them before Steve spoke.  “Yes, she knows.”

Natasha fixed her mark, the gun now aimed directly between Bucky’s eyes.  “Если ты обидишь ее, я тебя убью.”

“Я позволю тебе это сделать.”

The sincerity in his eyes seemed to convince her of something and she holstered her weapon.  “I will hold you to your word, Солдат.”

Bucky nodded solemnly and his right hand tucked his dog tag back into his shirt.  With a word to JARVIS, the lockdown was lifted and Natasha strode from the room, her back never completely to her former tutor.  She gave no illusion to her emotions until she was standing, waiting for the elevator.  A slight noise from behind and above her allowed her to give voice to her surprise.

“Did you hear all of that?”  She didn’t need to turn around to know that Clint was descending from the air vent behind her.  Once she knew he was standing beside her, he spoke.

“Yeah, weird.”  Clint looked her up and down before his eyes focused on the side of her face.  “You okay?”

The ding from the arrival of the elevator masked Natasha’s slight intake of breath.  She kept her eyes forward as she answered.  “I’m always okay.”

She made to take a step into the opened elevator but Clint reached out, holding her wrist.  “Tasha…”

“I’m fine.”  She pulled her arm out of his grip and stepped into the elevator, Clint following her as she pressed the button for the gym before stepping back.  She could feel Clint’s eyes on her the whole time.  It wasn’t until the doors were closed that he spoke again.

“You know you don’t have to be, right?”  She turned to look at him this time; her eyes falling for a moment to the leather cuff around his wrist which she knew had a small pendant on the inside, with the design of a spider at the bullseye of a target.  Natasha looked back up at his face.  “Not with me.”

She smiled slightly, wrapping her hand around the leather cuff.  “I know.”

\--/--/--

When night did finally fall and Darcy was officially off duty – although off duty meant nothing if either Tony or Jane had a breakthrough at 2am – she gathered her things and, with a quick word of goodbye to her boss lady and man, she headed for the elevator.  While she was waiting for it, she felt herself twitching with energy as she bounced on the balls of her feet and her fingers fiddled with the strap of her bag.  Would Bucky still be in the common room?  I mean, she’d left him there with Steve and they both have a lot of catching up to do but that was almost four hours ago.

When the elevator arrived she stepped in and decided she might as well check the common room before going to the floor her and Jane shared.  After pressing the button for the 45th floor, she spent the journey rocking back and forth on her feet, unable to shift the energy coursing through her.  When the doors did open on the common room, she let out a small sigh of relief just because she could move.  That relief, however, diappeared as soon as she stepped out of the elevator.  In fairness, Darcy was sure no-one on Earth, human or not, felt at ease under the eye of the Black Widow.

“Uhh…”  Darcy stood frozen long enough to hear the elevator doors close behind her and too late she realised she should have just gotten back in.  She let forth an internal litany of very creative curses as Natasha Romanoff stood up off the sofa and came towards her.  The two had crossed paths before, maybe exchanging a few words, but they’d never really ‘met’.  Which is why as Natasha came towards her, Darcy took a small step back.

Hawkeye, who Darcy just noticed was in the room with them, let out a snort of laughter.  “You’re scaring the girl, Tasha."

Natasha turned to glare at him before looking back at Darcy, her eyes a little softer.  “Come sit.  I just want to talk to you.”

Darcy had a sneaking suspicion that saying ‘no _’_ at this point was probably far worse than what Natasha wanted to talk to her about, so she complied.  She sat down on the sofa across from the assassins and put her bag on the floor beside her feet.  Darcy took her time arranging it, making sure it was standing up at the perfect angle, before meeting either of their eyes.  She cleared her throat before asking, “What do you want to talk about?”

Clint and Natasha looked at each other and, after what Darcy could only assume was a completely silent conversation, Clint leant back in his seat, putting an arm across the back of the sofa whilst Natasha leant forward slightly.

“James Buchanan Barnes is your soulmate?”  Darcy nodded.  Natasha tilted her head slightly before holding out her hand.  “May I see your chain?”

Darcy nodded again, pulling her soul chain out of her shirt so that Natasha could see it.  However, Natasha simply looked down pointedly at her hand before flexing her fingers.  With a swallow, Darcy slowly pulled the chain over her head; feeling like a huge weight was on her arms as she handed it over to the redhead.  As Natasha examined it, Darcy curled in on herself somewhat, her hand clutching at the phantom pendant no longer around her neck even as her eyes fixed on the real one being turned over in Natasha’s hands.  She felt exposed.

“I see.”  Natasha had stopped looking at Darcy’s chain but made no move to give it back.  She leant further forward in her seat.  “Darcy, are you aware of who Bucky Barnes is?”

“Yes.”  Her voice seemed weak even to her own ears, God knows what the superspies were picking up in the cracked sound.  She cleared her throat.  “Yes, I know who he is.”

“Do you really?”  Natasha sounded surprised and Darcy smiled a little at that, still feeling uncomfortable without her chain.  Still, her moment of pride gave her a small bout of confidence and she raised an eyebrow at the assassin.

“Well you did dump everything from SHIELD and HYDRA’s super-secret spy-drive onto the internet which is public domain.  And let’s face it, no-one walks in here without doing a little research first.”

“So you know what Barnes has done?”  The confidence fell away and Darcy shrunk a little in her place under both assassins’ scrutiny.

“For the most part,” she admitted.  “But that wasn’t him.  That was HYDRA in his head.”

Natasha opened her mouth to speak but closed it again when she heard the sound of the elevator.  Both Natasha and Clint turned to see Bucky and Steve walk into the room.  Both stopped after taking a few steps into the room, Steve seeming to take in the situation and Bucky with his eyes flicking between Natasha with Darcy’s soul chain and Darcy.

“What are you doing?”  His voice was a little deeper and more threatening but Natasha didn’t even flinch.  She stood up as he strode over to her, a foot of space between them.

“I’m ensuring that Darcy knows what she’s getting into.”  Bucky’s jaw clenched in anger.

“That’s not up to you.”

“Someone has to, Солдат,” Natasha said smoothly, holding out Darcy’s soul chain to him.  “But it would seem your Пара is not so easily swayed.”

Bucky’s eyes fell to the pendant and he took it from her gently.  Natasha nodded at him before making to leave, Clint following behind her.  She whispered something to Steve as she passed him before her and Barton left completely.  Steve stepped into the kitchen.  Still close but not so close as to be present.  Bucky turned to Darcy and knelt down in front of her.

“Are you alright?”  Darcy laughed at that, a genuine smile falling across her face and Bucky couldn’t help but smile too.  He carefully hung the chain back around her neck and pressed a soft kiss to the pendant in his palm before letting it fall back against her.  She let out a slight breath as she tucked it back into her shirt, taking comfort in the feeling of the metal against her skin.

“Did Natasha bust your balls about me?”  Bucky let out a small laugh, before looking up at her through his eyelashes.

“You could say that.”  Slowly, Darcy reached forward to run her fingers through his hair, noticing how Bucky instantly relaxed.  She filed that information away for later as her hand slid down the side of his face until she was cupping his jaw.  Bucky looked up at her, a slight uncertainty in his features.  She took a guess at what that was about.

“I know who you are, James Buchanan Barnes.”  Bucky inhaled sharply and Darcy leant forward to run her other hand through his hair.  “I told you.  I know what you’ve done and what you’ve been forced to do and I _told_ you that I don’t care.”  She was now cupping his face with both her hands.  “So you can wipe that ‘ _she-doesn’t-know’_ look off your face because, like it or not, you’ve got me now and I’m not going anywhere.”

Bucky’s hands came up to wrap around her wrists, holding her close.  He turned his head to press a kiss to her left palm and she smiled.  “You deserve better.”

Darcy slid off her chair so she was kneeling in front of him, her hands falling from his face.  “Maybe I do.  But these,” she pulled out both of their soul chains, holding them both in her palm, “say that it’s you and me against the world.  And I’m down for that if you are.”

Bucky looked down at both their chains and a small smile crossed his face.  He looked back up at Darcy, her face so close to his.  Slowly, to give her time to move away if she wanted, he leant forward, pressing a soft kiss to her lips.  It barely lasted a second before he pulled away, wrapping his right hand around both of the pendants and Darcy’s hand.  He looked up to meet her eye and smirked at her.

“Yes ma’am.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Не трогай ее - Do not touch her
> 
> Ни с места, иначе убью. - Don't move or I'll kill you  
> Поправь хотя бы позу, Наталья - At least correct your technique (method), Natalia  
> так-то лучше - That's better  
> Если ущерб ее, я буду убивать вы - If you hurt her, I'll kill you  
> Я позволит вам - I will let you do it
> 
> Солдат - Soldier  
> Пара - Soulmate/pair


	3. Style and Self-Restraint

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was listening to 'Style' by Taylor Swift and suddenly I had an idea so you all get this little tidbit. I would like to write more for this story but obviously I'm not sure if I can - as the muses aren't being very gracious with their gifts - so you're just going to have to bare with me.
> 
> Also, this is unbeta'd and although I read it over myself, if you notice any mistakes, message me or leave a comment.
> 
> Thank-you all so much for reading!

It wasn’t long after he’d kissed Darcy that first time that Fury had dragged (read: strongly suggested his compliance) Bucky away, with Natasha at his side and Steve following after her, shooting Darcy a comforting smile over his shoulder as he left.  She’d stayed kneeling on the floor alone for a few minutes, just pressing the cool metal of her soul chain to her lips.  She could wait; that’s what she’d told herself.  She’d wait for him to be done with all of the bureaucratic bullshit and then everything would be fine. They’d be fine.  She’d wait.

\--/--/--

She was done waiting.  Darcy hadn’t seen Bucky in a week.  It’s not that she was terribly surprised by his absence – after all she did bring him into what is essentially the epicentre of Earth’s security – but she had hoped that whatever paperwork and interrogation was needed from him would be finished in a few days.  She missed him.  But she was done listening to love songs and fiddling with her soul chain nervously whenever someone knocked on the door of a room she was in.  She wasn’t some lovesick teenager, she was Darcy Fucking Lewis (okay her REAL middle name is Anne but Fucking seems more fitting) and she was goddamn awesome!

It was for that reason that she donned her party clothes, put on her highest heels, and made plans with some non-super friends for the night.  Just before she tucked her soul chain into her shirt, Darcy gave it a small kiss and a salacious wink, whispering into the metal, “don’t wait up.”

Bus pass in hand, Darcy left her apartment with the intention of a good time.

\--/--/--

It was after midnight when Bucky let himself into Steve’s apartment.  Steve had handed him a set of keys with the comment that it was unlikely he’d make it back there tonight anyway.  He thinks the old Bucky Barnes would have argued – insist that the punk got some rest – but his tired brain, after a week of tests and questions and arguments, didn’t complain and sent him to the elevator.  Twisting the borrowed key around his metal fingers, he made his way through the place, noting the sparse furniture and the charcoal drawings on the coffee table in the living room.  He smiled a little on seeing them; a vague memory of a much smaller Steve Rogers laid up in bed with the flu drawing with a stubby pencil in the margins of newspapers.  Shaking his head, Bucky moved towards the kitchen; the persistent headache he’d had for the past few hours demanding water…and sleep.  He let out a groan at the thought of sleep, suddenly very aware that he’d been awake for the past 36 or so hours.  Sleep sounded incredible.  But so did water. Water first.

On getting to the kitchen, Bucky rustled through some of the cabinets before finding a glass.  He quickly filled it with water and gulped it down without stopping to breathe.  He let out a small sigh, moving to refill the glass.  That was when the phone rang.  He groaned.  As the phone continued to ring, Bucky drained his glass again and began moving in the direction Steve had told him the spare bedroom was.  The phone kept ringing.  Bucky grumbled a “go away” when there was a beep, indicating that someone was leaving a message on the answering machine.

“Uh, hey Steve.  It’s Darcy…Darcy Lewis.  Umm…I’m sorry if I woke you but I’m calling as a last resort.”  The sound of a familiar voice made him stop where he was, his head turning to look at the phone.  “I was out with some friends and it’s later than I thought so I missed the last bus and my friends have already left so I can’t hitch a ride and I called Jane but she’s not picking up but neither are you so…” Bucky heard her inhale and let out a sigh.  He took a step towards the phone.  “Look, sorry.  You’re not even home and I’m talking to a machine.  I guess I’ll just put on my big girl pants and call Tony.  Or Bruce…but I don’t know if I want to wake him…you know, with the jolly green giant and all…  Sorry! I’m rambling.  This is a long message…um, I’ll hang up now.”

Before she could hang up, Bucky picked up the receiver.  “Darcy, where are you?”

There was a long pause; long enough that Bucky thought she might have already hung up.  But then he heard her voice.  “Bucky?”

“Yeah, where are you.  I’ll come get you.”

“Ummmm.” Another pause.  Bucky could picture her looking around for street signs.  “I’m in Queens, near Cunningham Park, I think?”

“On my way, stay put.”  He hung up before she could argue.

\--/--/--

It was about 20 minutes of standing by a roadside with her arms wrapped around her before Darcy saw him in one of Tony’s cars.  She smirked at that; Tony was going to be pissed!  Bucky pulled up to the curb and, the temptation being too much given how she was dressed and the time of night, Darcy sauntered over to the car, bending down to rest her arms on the bottom of the open window and bat her eyelashes at him.  She drawled slightly, saying, “You in the habit of picking up pretty girls for a good time, mister?”

To her disappointment, Bucky didn’t laugh or even smile.  He just muttered “don’t joke about that” so quiet she almost didn’t hear it and leaned over to open the door for her.  She slid into the passenger seat and, as soon as she got the door closed, he takes off, speeding through the streets way faster than legal – she supposed that would explain how he made a 40 minute drive in half the time.  There’s a long silence before Darcy couldn’t bear it anymore.  She cleared her throat before speaking.

“Umm…thanks for picking me up.”  She phrases it like a question but he didn’t respond.  He didn’t even indicate that he heard her, his eyes focused entirely on the road in front of him.  Darcy tried again.  “So…uh…I haven’t seen you for a while?”

She noticed his metal fist clench a little tighter on the steering wheel.  “No, you haven’t.”

She waited for him to elaborate and, when he didn’t, she spoke again.  “Yeah, well…I figured it must have been important…you know…since Fury dragged you off personally and all…”

More silence.  Darcy had never been good at silence.  _That’s probably why you’re so loud and obnoxious_ , a little voice that sound a lot like her Auntsaid in her head.  She rolled her eyes and decided to just wait it out.  It took him 20 minutes to get to her, therefore she only had another 15 to get back, right?  She could do 15 minutes.

She lasted five before she burst.

“Oh, come on really!  You’re giving me the silent treatment?  Why?  Because I stayed out past my bedtime?  I’m an adult and I can do adult-y things like stay out all night and drink alcohol and…are you laughing at me?” Clear as day, Bucky Barnes was chuckling with a stupid grin on his face that she wanted to either smack or kiss off his lips.  Since he was driving and she could do neither, she turned that frustration into anger.  “Seriously?  Okay, that’s it.  You’re on my naughty list.  No Christmas presents for you!  Or Hanukkah because you’re being that much of a bastard.”

He let out a louder laugh at that.  Darcy folded her arms across her chest, pouting at the windscreen.  She guessed he must have looked at her, taking in her petulant expression, because he let out another laugh.  She turned her head but his eyes are back on the road again.  For some reason this annoyed her.  Why won’t he look at her?  Then she remembered his first comment to her; _Don’t joke about that_.  She looked down at her clothes, taking in the short skirt, high heels, and bright lipstick.  The penny dropped and then she was really mad because okay yes, he was born in 1917, but this is the 21 st century and Darcy Lewis was having none of that shit.

“How dare you!?”  Bucky’s chuckling stopped immediately and his brow furrowed.  Although, he still didn’t look at her.

“How dare I what?”

“You won’t look at me because I’m dressed like this?” she said with a wave down at her clothes.  She sees his eyes flick to her body before back to the road.  “Really?  You can’t look at a short skirt, high heels, and red lips on me?  Because I can introduce you to some hardcore feminists I met at college who will remind you of man’s weakness by ripping your balls off.  What, you think this is all _improper_ and _unlady like_?  Well cram it mister because I dress how I want and I don’t care if you don’t like it because I can–”

“I like it.”

The words were quiet but firm enough that she heard them.  She silenced herself immediately and replayed his words in her head.  Then replayed them again.  She’s sure she heard then but…she’s not sure.  “Pardon?”

“I said I like it.” Yup, she heard him right.  Darcy just blinked a few times, trying to take in what she just heard.  She’s pretty sure she could sit in silence for the rest of the 10 minute journey just replaying those words in her head but he kept talking.

“I like your clothes and your heels and – God – your lipstick.  It’s gorgeous and you look beautiful and if I was the Bucky from Stevie’s stories I’d have you in the back seat of this car right now.” Darcy absently squeezed her thighs together a little at that. “But I won’t because I’m trying to be a gentlemen and, God, it’s killing me to just sit here and smell your perfume and know that I could lean just a little closer and feel your skin on mine but then I–” He stopped himself, shaking his head.  “So I’m not looking at you…because I’m still learning self-restraint.”

Darcy blinked a few times, staring at the side of Bucky’s head.  “Oh.”

The rest of the drive was silent.

\--/--/--

When they got back to Stark Tower, Tony was waiting in the garage with a tumbler of whiskey (Bucky assumed) in his hand.  Bucky smirked a little, getting out the car and closing the door with a little more force than necessary just to see the older man wince.  Tony looked from the car to Bucky, meeting his gaze with a suspicious look.  “Any particular reason you decided to take one of my babies for a joy ride on your first day out of the lock-up?”

At that moment, the passenger door opened and Darcy stepped out.  Bucky risks a glance at her – all smooth curves and red lips – before turning back to Tony.  He notices how the billionaire is looking at Darcy, his eyes taking in her tight clothes and high heels, and a barely audible growl rumbled in his throat.  Darcy didn’t hear, but from the way Tony’s head snapped down to his whiskey before he took a sip, he assumed he must have got the message.

Tony swallowed before giving a tight smile, “Looking good, Lewis.”

Darcy wrinkled her nose.  “That’s like having my Dad tell me I look sexy.”

Bucky smiled at the appalled look on Tony’s face.  Tony pointed at her with one of the fingers that was wrapped around his glass.  “Just for that, I’m taking all the mocha cartridges from the lab’s coffee machine.”

Darcy rolled he eyes.  “Like I don’t have a million hidden.”

There was a long pause in which Bucky watched Tony take a few more sips from his whiskey before Darcy spoke again.  “So, as much fun as it is watching you guys have a macho-off, I’m really tired so–”

“I’ll take you to your apartment,” was out of Bucky’s mouth before he could stop it.  The smirk on Tony’s face made him want to reconsider his stance on murder but the smile Darcy gave him made the moderate humiliation worth it.  Tony looked between them before rolling his eyes dramatically.

“JARVIS, call the elevator.”  Darcy moved towards it on the other side of the room.  Bucky went to follow but Tony’s hand on his metal shoulder stopped him.

“Listen, Darcy’s a good kid and she’s liked around here so I’m sure you’ve heard this speech before but I’m gonna do it again for tradition’s sake.”  He leans in a little closer.  “Don’t hurt her or I’ll paint your arm bright pink and make it sing the My Little Pony theme song.  Got it?”

Not entirely sure of what My Little Pony’s were but understanding a threat when he heard one, Bucky nodded.  Tony gave him a pat on the shoulder hard enough for him to feel and stepped back, taking a sip from his whiskey.  “Oh, and don’t worry about Fury’s little curfew thing.  I’ll tell him you were rescuing a damsel in distress.”

“If I hear you call me that again, I’m gonna replace your coffee with decaf!” Darcy called from the elevator and both men chuckled.  A quick nod from Tony before he walked into a small room close by left Darcy and Bucky alone, waiting for the elevator.  Bucky walked over to her and stared at the closed metal doors.  He could almost hear her roll her eyes.

“Come on, Bucky.  If you can’t handle looking at your soulmate without creaming your pants we probably shouldn’t be doing this.”  He was so shocked by her crudeness that he turned to look at her, taking in the bright red lips twisted into a smirk.  He heard the elevator ding and tore his eyes away from her to step into it.  She followed him in.

The second the doors closed Darcy turned so she was staring up at him.  Bucky tried to keep his eyes forward but eventually the itch he felt from being stared at caused him to let out an exasperated sigh.  “You gonna stare at me the whole damn elevator ride?”

He turned to look at her and, on meeting her eyes, felt his throat go dry.  Damn, she was beautiful.  And she was his.  But he was trying to be a gentleman; trying to be the kind of guy she deserved.  Darcy raised an eyebrow at him.

“I am if you’re going to keep behaving like a child.”  Bucky let out a laugh, his eyes flicking down to her lips before coming back to meet her eye.

“I promise you doll, there’s nothing childish about what I’m thinking.”  He heard her small intake of breath and the slight flush that rushed to her cheeks.  He wanted to kiss them; that was gentlemanly, he justified to himself, a kiss on the cheek.

He bent down slightly, as even in her heels she was still shorter than him, and gently brushed his lips over her cheek.  Bucky made to pull back but it seemed Darcy was less interested in his gentlemanly desires and pulled on the front of his shirt until his lips met hers in a kiss.  Bucky’s metal arm moved almost of its own volition to circle her waist, pulling her against him as his flesh arm came up to cup her cheek.  One of Darcy’s arms came to wrap around his neck while the other remain on his chest, gripping tightly to the front of his shirt.  He’s not sure how long they stood like that, just kissing, until the ding of the elevator and the doors opening caused them to break apart.

They both caught their breath before Bucky guided Darcy off the elevator with the hand pressed to her back.  Once she got moving, Darcy seemed to remember herself and led him to her apartment.  Once she was standing in front of the door she turned around to look at him.  She bit at her lip and Bucky couldn’t help but smirk.

“So, I take it you’re gonna be around more now?  Tony said you were out of the lock-up so…” She trailed off, looking down at her apartment key in her hand.  Bucky smiled softly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”  She looked up at that, her eyes met his and, on seeing his smile, her face broke into a fantastic grin.  She bit her lip again before pulling her mouth closed, a smile still pushing at the corners of it.  She nodded.

“Yeah, tomorrow.”  Bucky couldn’t resist.  He put his flesh hand on her cheek and leaned forward to give her another small kiss, pushing her back against her door.  He felt her fist tightening around her key and smiled into her mouth before pulling back.

“Goodnight, Darcy Lewis,” he whispered against her cheek, pressing a chaste kiss there before turning and walking away.  He was almost back to the elevator before he heard her fumbling with her keys.  He looked over his should just in time to see her apartment door close.

\--/--/--

When he got back to Steve’s apartment, Steve was in the kitchen, a glass of milk in his hand. Bucky rolled his eyes at his old habits, moving around him to refill the glass of water he’d left almost an hour ago.  There was a moment of comfortable silence before Steve spoke.

“Darcy left a message on the answering machine.”  His tone wasn’t accusing but there was an edge to it that implied he already knew what had happened.

“I know,” Bucky answered, taking a long drink from his glass before continuing. “I went and picked her up.”

Another long moment of silence.

“Is she okay?”  Bucky nodded.  “Good, then I can tell you how stupid you are.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, turning to face his friend directly.  “For what?  Helping a dame?  That’s the kinda shit you used to have my head for not doin’ back in the day?”

The Brooklyn drawl found its way back into his tone and Bucky could see something in Steve shift.  The Captain put his glass down before turning back to his friend, the same drawl in his voice.  “Yeah, but back in the day you weren’t betrayin’ the trust of people who’re trying to help you by doing some dame a favour.”

“She’s not _some dame_!”

“I know.”  More silence.  Steve let out a sigh, dropping his head forward so his chin nearly touched his chest before looking back up.

“Look, I’m not gonna tell you that you shouldn’t’ve helped her.  I know you would’ve helped her no matter the circumstance but Buck, you gotta understand that no one here is the trusting type.  Hell, it took a week for ‘em to let you stay with me rather than in a holding cell.”  Bucky put his glass down, leaning back against the sink.  “So all I’m saying is that next time you’re gonna break the rules you give one of us a heads up so we don’t call in the cavalry when you’re not home by curfew, okay?”

Bucky just nodded which seemed to be enough for Steve.  He reflected on this for a minute before talking.  “Mind if I head to bed now?  Dealing with a mouthy dame for the evening can really take it out of a guy.”

Steve chuckled.  ‘Come on.  You’ve got quite the mouth on you anyway.  I’m sure you could handle it.”

Bucky smiled, shaking his head.  “Nah, you should’ve heard the stuff she was saying.  It’d make Dum Dum blush.”

Turning to leave the room, Bucky threw a hand over his back as a wave.  He had his hand on the spare bedroom’s door handle when he heard Steve shout from the kitchen.  “Her lipstick looks good on you!”

Bucky wiped his hand across his mouth, noticing the red stain on the back of it.  He smiled slightly before looking back in the direction of the kitchen.  He was going to kill that little punk.


End file.
